Run a March Madness pool
Fill the bracket. Ride the upsets. One Cinderella run and you're the office legend until next March.
Free for groups up to 50. No app, no spreadsheet.
How it works
Create the pool
Spin up your March Madness bracket pool, pick your round scoring and upset bonus, and launch in minutes.
Share the link
One link to the group chat or the whole office. Players fill their bracket with a display name - no accounts, nothing to install.
Pick and watch
Everyone fills out the bracket before tip-off. We auto-score every round and stack it on a live leaderboard.
March Madness pool rules
A March Madness pool is the classic bracket contest: everyone fills out the full tournament bracket before the games start, picking who advances through every round to the champion. Points pile up as your picks survive - and one busted Final Four can sink a perfect-looking sheet.
How scoring works
- Fill the whole bracket up front. All picks lock at the first tip-off. From there you're just watching your sheet live or die.
- Points per correct pick, escalating each round. A standard setup doubles each round - 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 - so the later rounds, especially the champion, decide everything.
- Upset bonus (optional). Reward correctly picking a lower seed to win by adding the seed difference - this is how a smart bracket beats one that just picked all the favorites.
- Highest total wins. Survive the chaos with the most points and you own the office until next March.
Common options
- Multiple brackets per player. Let people submit two or three sheets so one early upset doesn't end their tournament. Great for big office pools.
- Round-by-round vs full upfront. The classic is full-bracket-upfront; you can also run it round-by-round, where picks unlock as the field narrows.
- Lock at tip-off. Brackets lock when the first game starts - no edits once the madness begins.
Tiebreakers
The standard tiebreaker is a predicted total score for the championship game - closest without a clear leader takes it. You can also break ties on most upsets called or best single-region performance.
Why run it on Trofeo.live
Bracket pools always start with a flurry of texts and one poor soul tallying everyone's sheet by hand. Trofeo.live scores all of them, every round, automatically.
- Auto-grading. Every bracket scored live as games finish - round weights and upset bonuses included.
- Live leaderboard. Watch the standings shuffle in real time as the upsets land.
- Public proof. Your 12-seed Sweet Sixteen call gets gassed up; your busted champion gets roasted.
- No app for players. You set it up; they fill the bracket from a link with a name - perfect for the office.
Set your scoring, share the link, and let the madness sort everyone out.
Cinderella makes you famous
Call the 12-seed that crashes the Sweet Sixteen and the office will hear about it for a year. Pick all chalk and bust by the second weekend? That's a story too. Every bracket is public and scored live.
FAQ
What is a March Madness pool?+
It's a bracket contest where everyone predicts the entire NCAA tournament before it starts - who wins each game through to the champion. Correct picks earn points that escalate each round, and the highest total wins.
How does bracket scoring work?+
The most common setup doubles the points each round (1-2-4-8-16-32), so later rounds matter most. You can also add an upset bonus that rewards correctly picking lower seeds - which is how strategic brackets beat chalk-only ones.
Can players submit more than one bracket?+
Yes. You can allow multiple brackets per player so a single first-round upset doesn't end someone's tournament. It's a popular option for larger office pools.
Is it good for an office pool?+
Ideal. Share one link, everyone fills a bracket with just a display name, and the scoring runs itself - no commissioner spreadsheet. It's one of the easiest ways to get a whole office engaged for three weeks.
Is it free?+
Yes - free for groups up to 50 players. It's bragging rights, not betting: no wagering or payouts are built in. Bigger pools and custom branding are available on paid plans.
Run a March Madness pool
Fill the bracket. Ride the upsets. One Cinderella run and you're the office legend until next March.
Free for groups up to 50. No app, no spreadsheet.